Superboy and the LSH #226

Superboy and the LSH #226 (1977)
“The Dazzling Debut of Dawnstar!” by Paul Levits & Jim Sherman
“Five Against One” by Paul Levits & Michael Netzer
cover by Mike Grell

We truly begin the new era with one of the very few members introduced in the 70s.

The story is drawn by Jim Sherman, who is going to be the regular penciler for a while, but Dawnstar’s looks are specifically by Mike Grell.

The Legion is still dealing with the raiders introduced last issue (even though they a slightly different design), and apparently finding their base has proven to be a challenge.

The Legion actually has gained some information about the location of their hidden base, but it’s in a region of space that makes it basically impossible to track.
Except for Dawnstar.

It’s nearly impossible to understand how old any Legionnaire is in this era, but Dawnstar is specifically 16 years old at this point.
Let’s not think too much about how old Wildfire is supposed to be.

Since this is Dawnstar’s debut, the story takes the opportunity to hype her.

In addition to being able to fly through space, she’s also explicitly a mutant (!!!) with the power to track anything anywhere.

Let’s not think too much about the fact that the Space Native American’s power is super-tracking, because Dawnstar is awesome.

It’s the rest of the Legionnaires that are being dicks today.

Jim Sherman isn’t a bad penciler, but his space battle isn’t particularly impressive. Fortunately, Paul Levitz manages to give some gravitas to the moment.

The attack leaves the Legionnaires too busy to rescue civilians to pursue the raiders.

How is this Dawnstar’s fault!?!?

However, it turns out that Dawnstar is still able to track the raiders. And Lightning Lad even has to apologize for being a dick!
We truly are in a new era.

Dawnstar navigates through the “space warp” that leads to the Raiders’ real target.

Yeah, are you sure that’s Earth? Because it looks nothing like it!

But yes, despite looking like an alien planet, the actual base of operations of the Raiders is on Earth.

You might be thinking: if all Dawnstar can do is just navigate, does the Legion really need her?
Well…

Now that they have access to the base the Legionnaires take out the leadership, and once again apologize for being way too hard on Dawnstar.

Judging by her face, I think Dawnstar is so happy to be offered membership that she just got a stroke.

I do appreciate Dawnstar’s reflection on Wildfire’s mask. Nice little touch.

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Next we have the continuation of the Pulsar Stargrave subplot… which used to be the main plot but that was orphaned by Jim Shooter leaving.
And it begins with Brainiac 5 infiltrating the AWESOME lair of Mordru.

It helps that he’s been trained in martial arts by Karate Kid.

Let’s hope if was the Karate Kid of the Legion stories and not the one from his awful series.

You shouldn’t bring martial arts to a magic fight, though.

Next he’s made to fight his evil magical clone.

Or not, because Brainiac 5 just deduces that it’s not real!!!
It’s thanks to moments like this that he’s my favorite Legionnaire.

So, why did Brainiac 5 come to Mordru’s planet? To use the Star Stone in order to discover the real identity of Pulsar Stargrave. (!!!)

And the truth is revealed: Pulsar Stargrave is actually the original Brainiac!

Well it was revealed by the magic evil jewel of an evil super-wizard, so it must be true.

To be continued because this was just a 6 page teaser for the second part!

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Historical significance:
First story: 7/10
Dawnstar is going to become one of the most important Legionnaires pretty soon.
Second story: 4/10
Pulsar Stargrave’s second origin. It’s not going to be the last.

Silver Age-ness
First story: 2/10
The Legion’s general dickishness would fit perfectly in a previous era.
Second story: 6/10
The Star Stone is pretty random.

 Does it stand the test of time?: 6/10
The Dawnstar story is perfectly average for the era. The Legion’s distrust for the newcomer can be a little grating, but at least they apologize more than once.
I was honestly tempted not to rate the second one since it’s barely a story, but I kind of have to since it’s treated as such. It still gets a 6/10 exclusively for its brevity: there is absolutely no reason to leave it here instead of integrating it with the second part!
Which is a shame because the writing and the art are top notch, and any sort of insight into how Brainiac 5 thinks is always welcome.

 We are legion
24 Legionnaires
6 reserve members
3 honorary members: Elastic Lad, Pete Ross, Rond Vidar
1 resigned member: Command Kid
1 expelled member: Nemesis Kid
3 deceased members: Dynamo Boy, Ferro Lad, Invisible Kid 

How much Legion is too much?
With Dawnstar’s arrival, the total number of characters who have been members is 38.